“I know you can be overwhelmed and underwhelmed, but can you just be whelmed?”

Seriously one of my more favorite movie quotes, from 10 Things I Hate About You.  If you’ve never seen this movie, you should!  It’s a late-90s teen flick take on Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, with Julia Stiles as the Shrew, and Heath Ledger as the tamer of the Shrew (and when I first knew he was a  hottie - my friend Megan and I had a thing for him because of this movie).

Anyway, this whole home renovation thing has gotten overwhelming, in terms of physical and monetary efforts.  Part of it is induced by Steve and I ourselves.  We need to ratchet down the craziness - and the lofty goals. 

New locks on the door - Steve had to expand the hole so the new lock would fit…and had a devil of a time getting the plates lined up so the deadbolt would click into place…can’t change the door color, it matches everything else in the HOA

We keep finding stupid things that we need to fix before we can move on…  For example, I’m washing down the walls in the living room and come across one of the many golf-ball sized lumps of spackle protruding from the wall.  This is the MO for the former owners - if they did actually repair a hole in the wall, gigantic amounts of spackle that never get sanded down flush with the wall did the trick.  So I grab the pad sander (HUGE thanks to whomever gave us that for a wedding gift, we’re finally using it after nearly 5 years), and sand down the spot to reveal 2 nails stuck underneath the spackle.  INSTEAD of putting in a little elbow grease to remove a couple of nails from a stud, they SPACKLED over them.  15 minutes later, I’ve removed the nails and re-spackled over the mess I made from digging them out of their original spackle graveyard.

started priming the staircase, which is a pain because the wood is very rough, so it takes a lot to get coverage…  the carpet on the stairs looks great, is nice & cushiony, and the new boards are very sturdy

It’s this kind of crap that kills the motivation…because then some cynical comments are exchanged, which don’t actually help Steve and I feel better.  Even though (or because) everything we’ve done to this place has truly been a home IMPROVEMENT (rather than just changing things to suit our style), we’re dragging ourselves into a mire of negativity and some self-pity.  Couple all of the random mishaps with the intention to get a bunch of stuff done in a limited amount time and sometimes without the right supplies, I just had to throw in the towel Sunday night. 

1/2 bath downstairs - mostly painted, needs new light fixture installed and toilet put back together (notice the tank is sitting in the sink), also a new mirror to put up…cabinets will eventually get painted a fresh coat of white (along with the kick board underneath which was wallpapered)

I’m overwhelmed, and I just want to be whelmed.  Is that too much to ask?

So I made a resolution that we’re just gonna slow things down, and tackle the projects one by one.  And if that means painting won’t be done for a few months, then so be it.  Maybe this will also help us prioritize our purchases.  That way, we’re mentally prepared to spend Saturday night shopping for toilets, rather than dinner and a movie.  (But I made the best use of a common phrase EVER - for me, at least - when Steve couldn’t find the toilet he wanted in stock - I told him he was SOL!  *giggles*)

work we paid for - new tile in the upstairs bathrooms - this is the master bath, my closet is thru the opening on the right (also tiled)… also more of the new carpet

Plus, in my head, I’m going to keep better track of the things that are done, rather than what’s left to be done.  And I’m going to enjoy watching that list grow.  Or even the things that are started that just make me happy even though they won’t be finished for a while, like teal cabinets in the kitchen.

one layer of paint (Swim by Valspar) on just this part of the cabinet…kitchen wall color is almost done (Gravity by Valspar)…top cabinets will get a fresh coat of “Ivory Dust”… notice the pretty stainless steel convection microwave above the stove - woo hoo!

Although,  I think it’s OK for Steve and I to be a little ticked that Monday really meant Tuesday for installation of the hardwood floors - I don’t understand how that got misinterpreted.  Especially when we’re moving all of our stuff on Wednesday…anxiety ensues…

Seriously, the red ones were on super clearance because they were discontinuing that shade of red…  Steve’s company has a direct buy program with GE, so we got a nice discount on these (outlet store prices for brand new stuff)…I truly am excited to own a washer & dryer - no more quarters!

Update: I actually typed most of this post on Monday, to let myself vent… we went down last night to put one more coat of paint on the baseboards that are being installed today (Tuesday) with the floors.  Steve also rollered a layer of paint around the bottom of the living room and dining room, so that we limit the amount of edging against the new baseboards we’ll have to do when we paint the rooms.  And I started to clean the counters in the kitchen - some of it is our mess from some of the ceiling scraping and light installation, but a good chunk of it was the lack of cleaning by the former owner.  That’s all we went down there to do, we accomplished everything in 2 hours, and went back home to watch Monday funny night TV (How I Met Your Mother and the Big Bang Theory).  And life is good, I like this new strategy!